Similarly, They managed to extract 1 mg of radium from ten tonnes of the uranium ore pitchblende (uranium oxide, U 3 O 8), a considerable feat, given the chemically methods of separation available to them.They identified that it was a new element because its atomic spectrum revealed new lines. In fact, one of their designs for the military, the terrifying sounding WarAlarm, spurred a small shopping riot in Chicago in 1944 when a small batch of the clocks was made available for commercial purchase at a downtown store. I hope to document Style 5 Baby Bens this winter. At one time they employed about 3500 people, making about 35, 000 clocks and watches per day. From 1917 to 1926, the United States Radium Corporation used radium to produce wristwatches and clocks. I also like some of the older American weight-driven clocks. Charles Stahlberg headed a group from Waterbury, Connecticut, who came to Peru in 1884 to build clocks based on a new idea by Stahlberg. For the town of Peruwhich had tied much of its identity to Westclox for the better part of a centurythe damage went beyond financial. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. Eventually, scientists and medical professionals realized that these workers' illnesses . There are some blemishes on the wood on the right side. Most are in nickel finish cases, but some were made in gold plated cases. thank you, My Husband and I just purchased an antique mantle/shelf clock at an estate sale. UHR (CW arrow) knob sets clock time. Luckily for Charles, however, he is living in the same small town as Frederick William Matthiessena fellow German, but one with a hell of a lot more money and business experience. Its hard to fathom in retrospect, but in the early 20th century, it was generally believed that small amounts of radium were perfectly harmless to humans, and thus, the substances natural, long-lasting glow actually made it something of an attractive novelty of the time periodnot just on clock dials, but in the worlds of quack medicine, fashion, cosmetics, and even a proto version of energy water, called Radithor.. The trademark "Westclox" which had appeared on their Big Ben alarm clocks as early as 1910 was officially registered in January 1916. Here you can see production dates, original retail prices and other Buy Now. Something about them has always been ingrained in me. Then, on New Years Eve, as 2011 became 2012, the unthinkable happened. Westclox set up a factory in England in the 1940s and also in Scotland. If you do not expect to work hard and carefully, you are in the wrong place., Big Ben is a handsome, well built, refined and bright looking fellow with a clean-cut open face and a deep cheerful voice,, A well-dressed, steady and punctual chap, up to the minute and always on the job., Big Ben always comes to you straight from home, LaSalle, Illinois,, But he only comes upon receipt of signed price agreement. 1978. It also says that the patent was re-issued March 31, 1868. Kind regards, Ben van Vliet. My husband has a Big Ben clock that he inherited, it was took down from a mill and given to his grandma. Gordon Goodrum Westclox Wrought Iron Look Wall Clock 12" 32021A. They had one in Brazil for a while and I think also in Hong Kong. From that time on, Baby Bens first and then Big Bens were available with either the plain or luminous dial. I have a Seth Thomas Mantle clock that my older sisters husbands Aunt had on her mantle for years. Style 1a has four holes in the back to access the movement cap screws; Style 1 has the legs and pendant riveted to the case, on style 1a they screw on. In clocks, as in all other lines of goods, there are two classes of consumersthe millions and the millionaires. I have looked high and low in my attempts to find out how any of these resproduction style 1A were produced. Stoddard: The prices for larger wall clocks, three feet tall and up, have increased dramatically, while prices on some of the more common clocks have remained the same for the past 20 years. It was only with the passage of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 that the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) was given oversight of the use of radium. Immediately after, substances like promethium and tritium were used as a luminous material, and they're still being used today. I was looking at it and said, aha! Which is interesting because many of the electrics are scarcer but people just arent into collecting electric clocks. Stoddard: The National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors (NAWCC) is headquartered in Pennsylvania but has chapters throughout the country. We are very proud to be living in this building and would love to know more about this specific site. According to Chemistry Explained, radium is extracted today from uranium ores in much the same way that Marie and Pierre Curie did in the late 1890s and early 1900s. 7&a half X 6..desk clock. It has a patent June 18-1882 and says Dakota on the back,can you tell me more? Well, the company certainly maintained some major salesrooms here, and many of their employees came from the city and its suburbs. Westclox 0.9" LED Plasma Screen Alarm Clock with USB Charging Port 71014X. Westclox made an excellent, almost exact, reproduction of the style 1a Big Ben in 1970. While studying the types of Big Ben style 1 and 1A in WestcloxHistory.com, I noticed the reproduction style 1A, and have acquired about 5 of them. Question: Are both 1) and 2) marriages of Style 2 mechanisms put in a Style 1A Big Ben and Style 1 Baby Ben. Ive recently acquired a New Haven decorative wall clock. The work involved using luminous radium paint to make the numbers on clocks, watches and aeronautic dials glow in the dark. By the 1970s, radium was no . As Kate Moore explains it, The radium girls case was one of the first in which an employer was made responsible for the health of the companys employees. In the production of ordinary clocks adapted to the needs and means of the millions, America produces results of remarkable excellence. In the 1970s, radium was phased out of wristwatches and clockdials. It is in the manufacture of alarm and one-day clocks that these results are the most noticeable, because in this field the quality of the product had always been subordinated to the market value, and the general feeling was one of let good enough alone., In this particular branch of the clock industry the Western Clock Manufacturing Company has achieved great results in the last twenty years. [left to right: F.W. That was the first antique clock I owned myself. Required fields are marked *. Charles Crow Penn Valley, Ca, I have run across and old clock that I would like to know something about. Westclox Big Ben Alarm Clock Vintage. any info would be appreciated. Can you help If someone has restored it in the past, make sure the correct dial was put on it and the movements, which have probably been repaired a lot, have been done nicely. When I was eight we moved to a new house and my mom and I were looking in the attic and found an old octagon wall clock made by Waterbury, probably dated about 1880. Any help would be appreciated. When did they stop using radium on clocks? I have a Westclox Bachelor alarm clock from probably the 50s as it was always there when I was growing up. I tend to be a nitty gritty detail kind of guy. One time a friend and I were down there behind the factory and we got talking to a man who was leasing the back half of the factory to make machinery for bakeries. 400-day clocks are also known as anniversary clocks, they would run 400 days on one winding. Stoddard: I was pretty much on my own until college. Any suggestions of where to get a replacement preferably in Canada? The whole clock seems to be origional and was maintained by my grandfather who was a watch/clock repairman. They did some limited production (less than 200) in 1908, when they were still perfecting the design, then quite a few in 1909, but it really wasnt nationally advertised until September of 1910. In 1913, with help from the US government, Dr. Douglas formed the National Radium Institute, to mine radium from uranium ores recently discovered in Colorado. How do you date a Westclox Baby Ben? When did Westclox close? Columbia, PA 17512 As stated it is working and keeps time. It would be greatly appreciated. Your response or advice would be much appreciated. People will still look for a good wind up but the quality declined in the later years just because the companies tried so hard to keep the prices low. It emits alpha, beta, and gamma radiation. It is a wind up. When I walked along the street, Iwas aglow from the radium powder., [Mrs. Charlotte Purcell, like Catherine Donohue, was one of 15 former workers at the Radium Dial Company who contracted cancer and sought justice in the late 1930s]. Im always interested in the history and the variations of clocks and how they fit in the scheme of things, what came before and what came after. This 1964 Westclox Christmas ad describes their features. . It has ingraved on it 2-20-31. I have an Pine State Ice Cream Milk clock that I would like to find out how much it may be worth. Located at 41.3275 N, 89.1290 W on the map, the companys former plant is admittedly on the absolute fringes of what would typically be designated Chicagoland turf. the knobs have foreign words ie wecker & UHR.would like to know about his clock The NAWCC has an online forum with a lot of different categories. Theres a clock that came down the family, my great great granddad bought it used in about 1885, it was actually sold new in about 1839, one of the first of the weight-driven brass clocks. Do you have an archival dept who could give us an idea of our Western Clock which we recently acquired? About the only. Over time, she contracted terrible cancerous tumors, lost most of her teeth, and suffered countless other health problems. I was told it was an antique at that time. Behind the light, theyd been left in the dark. According to Periodic. On April 20, 1902, Marie and Pierre Curie successfully isolate radioactive radium salts from the mineral pitchblende in their laboratory in Paris. Radium dials were typically painted by young women, who used to 'point' their brushes by licking and shaping the bristles prior to painting the fine lines and numbers on the dials. Beginning in the 1910s, the girls instructed to put radium in their mouths didn't bat an eyelash. Just remember, old luminous clocks are full of radium! Next year, well have been married for 49 years, Mary Ann said. By 1930, all dial painters stopped pointing their brushes by mouth. My love is for the style 1 peg leg Big and Baby Bens; mostly Baby Bens. I live in Scotland but my clock was made in USA. Dont know if someone ingraved date on when took down or if the original. I'll start with a 19j Bunn, Looking for Somebody with Some Bandwidth to do a Repair. Finally, with Catherine Donohue serving as a key witness from her death bed in 1938, a groundbreaking Supreme Court case finally delivered some long awaited justice to the victims. They were sold in a very attractive hexagonal box which has pictures of antique items on the sides (tricycle, telephone, carriage, etc.) Westclox Classic Alarm Clock Full Size 47602. My moms father had a small collection of antique clocks and when I was a little boy he showed me how to wind them and regulate them. He also recalled playing in the factory. [9] The element was phased out of use by industry acting under its own volition as superior and safer luminous materials entered the marketplace. My Grandmother had a Westclox in her house. When I went home and washed my hands in a dark bathroom, they would appear luminous and ghostly, an original Ghost Girl named Catherine Donohue (nee Wolfe) later testified. I bought a 1970s Westclox pocket watch with a Hotwheels face that says authorized seller on it. The disease, radium-induced osteonecrosis, was recognized as an occupational disease in 1925 after a group of radium painters, known as the Radium Girls, from the United States Radium Corporation sued. Even if the Western Clock Co. wasnt born in Chicago or headquartered here, the immediate aftershocks of the companys cultural and industrial impact certainly reached our shores in a hurry, no interstate required. Buy Now. George Kern died on July 27, 1918 from a ruptured appendix, but his basic clock design lived on for years. I think the clock was electric but could have been a wind up or maybe even a pendulum. var year = today.getFullYear() Radium paint can be ingested by inhaling flaking paint particles. All Rights Reserved. You do not want to open them up, lest you breath radioactive dust from old paint or spread it around. Here you can see production dates, original retail prices and other knowledge about vintage and antique Westclox clocks and watches. The center is in the shape of the world map. By Dave Margulius Its got a round brass dial and a painting in the door, really neat. The use of Radium changed over several years but it was not until late 1960ies when the last were made. hi, I have a cocacola square clock. The drinking fountain worked.. Advertisement: Illustrates crackle green Tiny Tim, crackle blue Big Ben and crackle pink Baby Ben clocks. Your email address will not be published. There are many Westclox alarm clock models named Big Ben. [Left: The first national Big Ben advertisement appears in the Saturday Evening Post in 1910: Big Ben is a thin, beautiful and punctual sleepmeter with a silent motor that will not annoy you on your lie-awake nights and a deep musical voice that will call you on your sleepiest mornings. Right and Below: A style 1A Big Ben from our museum collection, circa 1920s.]. i have a large ansonia wall clock 32 1/2 x 32. How do you set the time on a old fashioned alarm clock? Omega stopped using radium around 1963. For at least four generations, the Western Clock Manufacturing Company, aka Westclox, was the lifeblood and largest employer in the small town of Peru, Illinois (with a mailing address in its twin city of LaSalle). This end has been achieved by what is known as the Western Processa process in which the component parts of a clock are cast, or, so to speak, cemented together with an alloy, instead of staked, and in which all hand labor is replaced by automatic machinery., [Automatic machinery certainly sped up the manufacturing process, by plenty of human skill and attention was still required to make the Big Ben. when did westclox stop using radium. lds missionary clothing stores; June 24, 2022 . At the end of one hand is a star and the other hand is the moon. In the comprehensive Big Ben & Baby Ben Identification Guide, organized by researchers Richard Tjarks and Bill Stoddard, they credit the original brilliant marketing of these little wonders almost entirely to one mana 28 year-old French immigrant named Gaston Le Roy. They made them with wooden works until about 1840, then with brass gears and I like some of the early brass-geared American clocks. They worked for the United States Radium Corporation painting the numbers and hands on watch. I have purchased 1) Style 1 Baby and Big Ben with the Gold Leaf dial (seller stated raised letters); and, 2) a Style 1 Baby Ben with Baby Ben De Luxe on the dial. I know Bill Stoddards name from other publications on Westclox. Fortunately, in the years since, theres been a noble effort to retain surviving parts of the building and some of the important local history that the empty factory once represented. I try to get all the pictures I can and keep them all chronologically and study the history. I am looking to get an approxmiate value of this clock. Based in Flora, Indiana, Bill can be reached via his website, clockhistory.com, which is a member of our Hall of Fame. I first saw the clock in 1957. 514 Poplar Street Matthiessen [pictured below], who owns the powerful Illinois Zinc Company and most other things in Peru / LaSalle, decides to swoop in and save Stahlbergs little clock business, incorporating it as the Western Clock Mfg. The only problem is a standard size D battery does not fit. So, rather than having the classic oversized bell or double-bell on top of the unit (to smash with your palm at 6am), the ringing mechanism was housed inside the back of the case, and a big winding key occupied the summit. It was a gift from him to her the year before they were married. When did the use of radium stop? [5] Indeed, the body treats radium as it does calcium, storing it in bone where it may cause bone degeneration and cancer.[5]. There are also some specialty chapters, like an alarm clock chapter and a 400-day clock chapter, one that specializes in wristwatches and one on early American pocket watches. If you look at a Baby Ben in the 1959 Sears catalog, they sold for about nine dollars and if you go to a Wal Mart today you can still buy a Baby Ben for about nine dollars, but the quality isnt the same. At this moment I study horology at West Dean College in the UK. Was just trying to find out any information on this clock or if you may have ever come across one like it into groups of similar models. Dates Stamped on Big Ben and Baby Ben Clock Movements Dates were stamped on a movement plate of most Big Ben and Baby Ben alarm clocks made up until mid-1970's. Numbers are used for the month, day and year; or just the month and year (e.g. Thanks very mutch, I just acquired a sir w.h. Big Ben style 1a continued in production until its discontinuation in 1935. and again 1243 is this an antique its gold but looks brand new but also an antique at the same time does anyone know what kind of pocket watch this is or if its gold or a replica of something or what it might be worth?? can anybody tell me about this piece? In 1919 the company was incorporated as Western Clock Company, Ltd. The style 7 Big Ben and Baby Ben (1956 to 1964, the first Bens with concentric alarm hand) has minute markings. The precise, delicate skill of painting clock dials with radium powder promised a much higher salary than most factory jobs available to women at the time (upwards of $18 a week), and the company soon employed as many as 200 female workers in its Ottawa plant. Can someone get back to me as to what it is and possibe age of it. The company later changed its name to the United States Radium Corporation. That way I got myself another Baby Ben, bringing my collection to three by age 12. I wonder if the younger generations are as interested in the older things as we are, although there are some younger collectors out there learning how to do clock repair. I would like to find out about this clock. The factory contained a bowling alley, and Ristau said his father was an excellent bowler. I would like to know the value of a #4 black, #321(in original cardboard Christmas box), mint condition, Baby Ben alarm clock is. The magical glow, as was widely understood by everyone involved, was created by radiuma radioactive element discovered by Marie Curie in 1898. American manufacturers were quick to see that the millionaires are a negligible quantity as consumers, and that, not chronometersnot marvels of intricacy and originalitywere needed, but timepieces within the reach and want of all. Only reason I can think of and it looks pretty odd not to have minutes on a clock face. WECKER (CCW arrow) knob sets alarm time. I am trying to determine the age. Accueil; Services; Ralisations; Annie Moussin; Mdias; 514-569-8476 The sound is very good when I compare it with the Howard Miller and the Jauke I just purchases, its loud and resonates very well. Can anyone tell me the meaning or significance of this eye? Radium was discovered by Marie and Pierre Curie in 1898[1] and was soon combined with paint to make luminescent paint, which was applied to clocks, airplane instruments, and the like, to be able to read them in the dark.[2]. Selling for $2.50 in the years before World War I (or about $60 in modern money), the 5-inch diameter Big Ben and its half-pint cousin the Baby Ben combined to move over 900,000 units in just 1913 alone, and the Western Clock MFG Companynot yet officially known as Westcloxwas producing more than twice that many clocks annually in total. At the top was a clock covered with a glass door. When I got out of college I started going to the watch and clock conventions and met a man who was giving a program about the history of Big Bens and Baby Bens. I like to find the ones before that and study their history. Also, its not just Americans who collect, its worldwide. Leg model with ring on top, dustproof case. Old Rose (pink) crackle finish Baby Ben with luminous dial: 1929 1930. In a way theyre preventing clocks from being thrown away so I cant totally condemn it, but it still seems like a funny thing to do. Style 1 has three screws through the bezel visible from the front, style 1a doesnt (compare figures 3 and 7); Style 1 has two screws holding the bell back, style 1a has three. Stoddard: The main thing is the originality of the dial and if its a wooden shelf clock, having the original painting in the door would be really important. I read (but cant remember where) that about 40,000 were made. Westclox Big Ben and Baby Ben Identification Guide , Remembering the Great War and The Clock That Caused a Near Riot . Unfortunately, they also hint at a tragic chapter in American industrial history, when the appeal of a luminous new kind of paint wound up putting hundreds of workersmostly young womenat great personal risk. [Left: The first national Big Ben advertisement appears in the. Were finally at a point, where were ready to do more than just sit here, said Ruth Spayer, curator for the museum.
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